HI, I have been looking for a smaller metal lathe to turn bushings, pins, etc for my model T repairs. I have a chance to buy a grizzly G4000 metal lathe with accessories. Does any body have one of these and are they good, bad or ugly. Now I am a beginner when it comes to lathes so I am not looking for a pro model, just a decent one to learn on. Thanks Paul

Paul, I've seen a few of them and they appear to be fairly good. THe company I work for (Pella Windows) uses a lot of Grizzly equipment (saws, dust collestors, etc) in the plant for manufacturing and it holds up quite well. In fact I don't recall having to repair a single piece. We don't use any of their metal working equipment in the tool room, but I won't say its because Grizzly is bad, just because we have lathes and mills that were there before they started buying Grizzly equipment. Just from my observation (and I figure somebody's feathers will ruffle up when I say this), I'd rather have the Grizzly equipment than the Harbor Freight stuff.

What kind of accessories are included? Worst thing about a lathe is that most beginners don't realize that you'll spend a lot more for the accessories and tooling than the lathe costs. The more "stuff" that comes with it, the better off you'll be. Some of the things that you'll no doubt need as you gain experience are collets, 3 and 4-jaw chucks, steady rest, follow rest, live and dead centers, face plates, dogs, taper attachment, thread dial, carriage stop, boring bars, LOTS of cutters in assorted combinations, just to name a few. This stuff will nickel and dime you to death so keep that in mind and hopefully what you are looking at includes a lot of thoe accessories. Also, if you don't have a good dial indicator and base, calipers, and micrometers, you'll want to start looking for those. Shars and Harbor Freight sell those fairly reasonable and, unless you are going for super precision, they'll serve you well. Shars does have lots of cutters and accessories too at about the best price you'll find. Not highest quality but good for a hobby lathe. Also, you might talk to Thunder (just don't make him mad like I did ) who has a thread where he just acquired a lot of tooling. Auctions and liquidations are a wonderful place to get large quantities of good tooling at a fraction of the retail cost.

OK Ray, I had that one coming. LOL.

Paul. Send me an e-mail after you get your lathe.

naw, THunder. I don't blame you...after re-reading my post I can see where it could have been taken totally smarta**y.

Here are a few pics that the fellow sent me of the lathe and what is with it. Any idea what I should offer? Thanks again, Paul

Here's the one you are looking at:http://www.grizzly.com/products/9-x-19-Bench-Lathe/G4000.

I got their G4016 back in 1994 and have used it almost daily with no problems. Back then they were having a sales promotion with reduced and free shipping and got it delivered at my door for under $2800. At the same time I bought their 20" wood planer, 24" drum sander, 6" jointer, 16" wood band saw, and 10" table saw all from Grizzly. Before that I had purchased all my buffers and belt sanders from them also except for 2 buffers that are Baldors.

One of the big reasons for going with them is they carry service parts for their machines. Try getting service parts from HF or Enco. Bob

Hey A great thing about Grizzly they if you go to there website they have a CAD program and you can lay out your shop. They even have templates of all there tools and when your done you can not only print out the plan but you get a full list of all the equipment ready to order. Smart maketing but out of my league. I also believe they are one of the few that can still bragg that they are "American Made"
Ron

Paul,

Grizzly and Jet are the best of the home-shop level machine tools. The tooling in your photos also looks like a decent basic set. You'll definitely want a quick-change tool post and carbide-insert tool holders. Those are ok to get from Harbor Freight (very few moving parts). Just open the box before you leave to make sure you get a good copy. Get the actual carbide inserts from McMaster though. There are several different grades of carbide depending on what you're machining.

From Ray's list, the next thing you'll need is a boring bar set. The HF set is good enough for bushings and the like, and what I consider "expendable tooling".

And while not directly related to the lathe, something I recommend to everyone when I get the opportunity: Throw away your hardware store tap set, and go back to McMaster's (or any local pro tool supply) and buy two-flute gun taps in the sizes you'll need. They throw the chips in front of the tap, so there's no "backing off" as you tap, no clogged flutes, and fewer broken taps. You'll be amazed at the difference working with these. Good luck. You'll really enjoy having a lathe when working on your T...

- Bruce

According to a good friend of mine Tony Verschoore who helped my wife Renee pick out a 12x36 metal lathe for my Christmas present, life is divided into 2 parts. That portion of life BEFORE I got my metal lathe and that portion of life AFTER I got my metal lathe. Mine spins almost every day making something.

Bruce has a good lead on tooling there at HF. I went there for the first time last week and was amazed at the prices. I have drawers full of that kind of tooling and could have probably bought a trailer queen between the difference in prices with industrial suppliers like MSC/J&L and others compared with HF..

Paul, I'd offer $500.

About the only thing good about HF are the prices. Forget quality 'cause it isn't there. The machine tools need rework, there are web sites devoted to this, to even do passable work, the nail guns fire randomly, no need to press the head against the work and the hobby knives, Xacto knock offs, break because of the plastic collets used. I manufactured my drill press, a class requirment, while attending Ohio State in 1950, it is still reliable and accurate with tight shafts and bearings. I was given an HF drill press and it looks great but it's "Loose as a goose." If HF is all you can afford then go for it but don't expect quality, accuracy or longevity in the tools. As an alternative source for quality tools you might consider shopping in pawn shops for old hand tools.

I received a HF 14inch band saw that had broken parts which HF no longer carrys. Grizzly has diagrams and everythig is the same so I bought thee parts from Grizzly and it works great. I think Grizzly can handle parts for most tools that HF sells. Just my opinion.
Dick

That's the trick Richard. I lot of these lower priced tools are made by an OEM we probably have never heard of so you have to keep a sharp eye out for different branding of the same machine and then get your parts from the strongest provider of aftermaket service. If you got it for Richard;s estimate of $500 then it would be a steal. I would try and get a manual and check out what it can do like threading, do you need a taper attachment ets. I can't figure out the two green painted attachments in the tooling picture. Is that some kind of collet set up?

Grizzly machine products are NOT American made! I don't know where the bragging comes from.

For bushings and small parts, that lathe will probably do all you ask of it. One quip I have about that lathe is that you can't run the feed independent of the chuck direction. There's no tumbler. In other words, you can't make left hand threads without jockeying the tool bit--Turning it upside down.

Other than that it's a pretty good starter lathe. Also, the pictures indicate that the extra set of jaws for 3-jaw chuck are missing. They'll be needed for larger diameter stock. Another problem is that you are stuck with the chucks you get. Unless of course you make your own backing plates. The headstock thread is 39mm x 4mm, not a more common 1 1/2 x 8. Oh yeah, don't know why the 5C collet holders are included but they add a few bucks to the value of the package. I don't see any collets in the pictures so the owner is probably keeping those.

I'd say $500 is a generous offer. There's really not much included that didn't already come with the lathe. A NEW one runs about $900.

Forgot to mention: Make sure you get all the gears or you won't be able to cut all the indicated threads.

Ken, I was suspicious of that silly name myself. Of one thing you can be certain, when you buy Chinese tools, you will probably always own them.

If you want a Chinese made lathe, a very similar but slightly better quality is Shop Fox. They appear to be tied up to Grizzly somehow but from what I've seen the quality is a little better. As far as tooling, if you get hooked up with MSC and a watch their sales you can buy GOOD tooling for about the same as Chinese. MSC offers a wide variety of quality and prices. I personally like Accupro brand. They quite often have 40 or 50% off sales that are internet only for one day. They also have free upgrade to next day air for small packages. They have no minimum order and I've never had a backorder. I have only ever had one Grizzly product. I had it for about 3 weeks and took it to an auction and sold it, put some money with it and bought what I should have bought to begin with. I have a Jet lathe and mill, both Taiwan, not China. I'd sure like to upgrade the mill but can't afford it. I'd like to upgrade the lathe to a Prazzi or Vextrax but no bucks right now.